So I was walking up to my house the other day and saw something weird poking out of the wall. It was mushrooms! They were growing out of a crack in the bricks. I totally know what this is about. I have a leaky pipe in the wall. It’s been there since I’ve moved in here. But it’s a big job, and requires some demolition and isn’t something you can see the beautiful results of like painting a wall or re-doing a kitchen. So I haven’t fixed it. So far, the only effect I’ve seen is ants. Ants like moisture. But now there are mushrooms. I have to get that leaky pipe fixed…
On another topic, today is my first full day of school… my first day with all the students! I’m so excited/anxious!
For about the last 9 years, I’ve been wearing a silver ring on my right middle finger. All through college and even into my first years out, I wore my high school class ring on my right ring finger. In Seattle I started wearing a silver ring on my left middle finger. I thought it was cool to be able to talk in class about silver and gold and have them represented on my hands. Then when I moved to Baltimore, I stopped wearing my class ring. I wore only the silver, and I moved it to my right hand. Last October I got rather a nasty infection on my right index finger. It got worse before it got better, but that’s another story. I’ll do a whole separate page on that some time. Anyway, I stopped wearing my right hand ring because it made my swollen index finger feel even more strange than it already did.
I have decided to start wearing rings again. I actually have kind of a collection of them. Most of them are silver because they are so cheap to get at those carts in the mall. I do have one stainless steel ring. It has a tension setting with a sapphire in it. I don’t think silver is stiff enough to do tension settings. Another one is not silver because it’s a bottle opener! So anyway, because of my collection, I get to decide which ring to wear each day. My favorite is the ring that looks like a nut. But I wore that yesterday. I like them all though. I think I will wear the one that looks like a chain today.
I think the walls of my room are ready. I still have some paperwork and computer stuff to do before the first full day of school, but I’m ready for the first half day. The new students come today. Most of them are sixth graders, but there are four or five new seventh and eighth graders. I and the other 7th/8th teachers will work with them today. Tomorrow the sixth graders have a second half day, then Wednesday everybody comes and we have a full day. I’m really ready. I actually didn’t sleep very well last night. Isn’t that weird? I NEVER have trouble sleeping. Anyway, here are some pics of my room.
I went to another church again today. It was St. Dominic’s Roman Catholic Church. It’s in walking distance of my house. The sanctuary is beautiful. I was once again confused by the service. I didn’t know how to follow along. I don’t know if that’s how all Roman Catholic churches are, or if it’s just the two I’ve gone two in the last two weeks. It isn’t very visitor-friendly, I have to say.
One other interesting thing about this morning’s service: the sermon was entirely Gospel. There was no Law. Completely Law-oriented sermons are very common. I heard one when I went to an Assembly of God church a few weeks ago. But completely Gospel-oriented sermons are a very rare bird. I missed hearing Law. Gospel is just a bunch of fluff if there is no Law. I was glad for the experience. I wonder sometimes if people wouldn’t rather just hear Gospel. But without the Law, why care about the Gospel? No big deal. God loves me, yeah, yeah, who doesn’t?
On a completely different subject, I’ve been wanting to record just how big my backyard banana trees are this year. The mild winter didn’t completely kill the trunks from last year, so they had a big head start. They’re HUGE! I took a picture, but somehow, it doesn’t seem to show how big they really are.
I always have to start my getting-ready-for-the-school-year process with my front bulletin board. I do the Bible verse of the year as my theme. It takes me a day. Once I finish it, the rest can follow. It’s all I did yesterday, and now that I’m writing it, it sounds like I didn’t do very much. But it’s all part of the transition from Summer-Brad to School-Brad. I’m going in to school today (on a Saturday), and maybe also tomorrow. Being there helps me realize it’s coming. Here’s my bulletin board for this year. The theme verse is around the border.
Here’s my bulletin board from last year. The theme verse is at the bottom.
